Prime Time Soap Operas Making Waves In The Tv Rankings

Usually when someone is speaking about soap operas, what will come to mind are the daytime television dramas that have captivated many housewives for more than five decades, with new followers getting on board all the time.

Day time soaps are more popular than ever. Many women and even some men, have been following these never ending, never repeated shows for years almost religiously.

The newest soap operas are those that are aired during prime television viewing hours, somewhere between 7 and 9 p.m. at night. These night time soap operas came on the scene during the 1970's. The first ones that were really big hits were Dallas and its spin off show, Knots Landing. These soaps were made a little differently than their day time counterparts.

Following the lead of these pioneering night time dramas in more recent years were shows like ER, The O.C., Desperate Housewives, and one of the latest hits, Grey's Anatomy.

These new shows have an even bigger following than the first ones. Entire seasons of many of these prime time soaps can be purchased on DVD today and their reruns are already being broadcast on satellite and cable channels.

Evening shows such as those mentioned, were the catalyst that rocketed several of their actors and actresses to stardom. Brad Pitt for example, got one of his first significant roles on Dallas. Pitt also acted on the day time soap, Another World. Joan Collins had acted for years, but her fame only reached its peak after she starred on Dallas.

George Clooney, though he had been acting for a while, really became famous playing an emergency room doctor on ER in the 1990's. Today Pitt and Clooney are two of the biggest stars around, as well as Demi Moore, who also got her start in daytime dramas.

On the hit show, Desperate Housewives, the actresses Marcia Cross, Felicity Huffman, Eva Longoria, and Terri Hatcher, all seem to be almost equally sharing the fame that the show has brought them. It has been on for several seasons and shows no signs of waning fans.

It must be that there are two elements that make prime time soap operas so appealing to such a broad and committed audience. The first reason being they often have such outlandish story lines that they could probably never be a situation in our own mundane lives.

The second reason being, that some story lines can hit us so close to home and pack such an emotional punch, that we begin to feel a real connection to the characters that we have come to love. These shows provide us with both sides of a coin, so to speak.